Future reflection time at city hall not likely

Committee has voted against a moment of reflection at city hall and now it will go before council for a vote.

Councillor Michael Oshry put forward the motion to amend the bylaw. According to adminstrators, a staff member would need to be hired to oversee the reflection periods and Oshry doesn’t think that is appropriate.

“I just think it’s not a necessity and I think our dollars would be spent better with hiring another bylaw enforcement officer or development permit officer or something more concrete.”

“I don’t think we need to read a poem to get into the mood to be able to do city business.”

Councillor Bev Esslinger agrees that council needs to abandon reflections, but she thinks that what they had before was more diverse than what it changed to.

“Some of the arguments that we went from Christian faith to multi faith to diversity and inclusion except for people of faith seemed a little odd to me.”

Councillor Scott McKeen was on the fence. He was willing to give it another shot it they tried something else.

“I miss the prayers. I actually thought there was a nice grounding in a sense of spirit and community that maybe we as politicians need to hear sometimes to remind us of why we’re there. I don’t know if this would have filled that gap.”